


farewells

by Accidie



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: 500 Words Challenge, Angst, Dutch is mean in this but he's heartbroken, Multi, Pre-Canon, Prompt Fic, Unrequited Love, Young Dutch van der Linde, Young Hosea Matthews, the dads are fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24813493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accidie/pseuds/Accidie
Summary: In which Hosea is leaving and Dutch doesn't deal well with heartbreak.
Relationships: Bessie Matthews/Hosea Matthews (mentioned), Hosea Matthews/Dutch van der Linde, Hosea Matthews/Dutch van der Linde (unrequited)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	farewells

When it’s time to leave, Arthur is nowhere to be seen. It was nothing unusual for Arthur, the boy always had a habit of disappearing, rarely for more than a day and always with a story to tell. 

But this morning he had told him that he didn’t want him straying away too far away from camp, that he wanted to have a moment with him later in the day. 

Hosea wouldn’t consider himself a coward, but he had wanted to wait until the last minute before telling Arthur about his departure for a reason, and that reason was that he couldn’t stand seeing Arthur sad. If he broke the news to Arthur the same day as he did to Dutch, he suspected it would have been impossible for him to leave. It already was hard enough with Dutch spending the whole week trying to guilt him into staying. 

He has a sinking feeling in his gut that Dutch has something to do with Arthur’s disappearance.   
That’s why he confronts him just outside their shared tent, where Dutch is sitting just outside with a cigar in his hand. 

“Do you know where Arthur is?” Hosea asks. 

Dutch doesn’t look at him, instead he takes a long drag of the cigar he’s holding. 

“I sent him out on a job with Colm,” Dutch finally says. 

“ _What_?” 

“I said,” Dutch says, this time slower, and Hosea has to resist the urge to punch him. “I sent him out on a job.” 

“You knew I was leaving tonight.” 

Dutch couldn’t possibly have forgotten that. He had been moping the whole day, barely moved from the chair outside their, no, _Dutch’s_ tent _._

“Dutch,” Hosea says when the silence from the other man had stretched on for too long. “Dutch, you _promised_ me that you would let me say farewell.” 

“He’ll be back in two days, if you like to say goodbye so badly.” 

”Was that your plan?" he hisses, ”Trying to make me stay with you by keeping him away?” 

“Oh, please,” Dutch says. “If he meant so much to you, you wouldn’t leave.” 

Dutch had known how much it would have meant to him to say goodbye. Hell, he had wanted to take Arthur with him to Bessie, to let the poor boy have a chance at a normal life. Dutch had crushed that hope quickly, and now he had taken his final farewell to the boy he raised away from him. 

It was cruel, and Hosea knew how to be just as vicious in return. 

“You can’t keep punishing me for not loving you, Dutch.” 

Hosea might as well have shot him. Dutch just stills, like all life has drained from him. Then his face transforms, and Hosea can see it all there; grief, heartbreak, and anger. Dutch tries to put on that unbothered façade of his, but Hosea had always been able to read him. 

“Go to your wife, Matthews,” Dutch says, voice cold as steel. “I am done with you.” 

**Author's Note:**

> this was a prompt fill: cruelty and heartbreak in exactly 500 words 
> 
> wrote this in like 15 mins but I really hope you like it, anon!
> 
> find me on tumblr: https://comrade-enjolras.tumblr.com/


End file.
